Gil Holzman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Eco Atlantic, said on Friday: ” [ Jethro-1 discovery] was the first well of our 2019 drilling program and begins a period of significant exploration activity.

“The drillship is on its way to our next target in Guyana, Joe-1, where we will, together with our partners Total and Tullow Oil (operator), commence the spudding of our second well in the coming days and expect to have results in the second half of September.”

The Joe-1 location, in a water depth of 650 meters, is a shallower target and is expected to spud by the end of August 2019, using the Stena Forth drillship.

As for the discovery made, Tullow is currently evaluating the data from the Jethro discovery to determine appropriate appraisal activity expected in 2020.

Tullow is the operator of the Orinduik block with a 60% stake. Total holds 25% with the remaining 15% being held by Eco(Atlantic) Guyana Inc.

The maps shows Tullow’s Orinduik block near Exxon’s Stabroek block where more than a dozen oil discoveries have been made over the past three years [ Map source: Tullow Oil ]Guyana has been placed on the offshore oil exploration map following a series of large oil discoveries by ExxonMobil in the past three years at the Stabroek offshore block.

Tullow is hoping to replicate ExxonMobil’s success, as the Orinduik block is located next to Exxon’s Stabroek block where more than a dozen discoveries have been made.

The FPSO is expected to reach Guyana in September and will be deployed at Exxon-operated Liza field as part of the first phase of the development offshore Guyana. First oil is expected in the first quarter of 2020.

The Liza field is expected to start producing up to 120,000 gross bopd by the first quarter of 2020. The first phase is expected to develop around 500 million barrels of oil.

The FPSO, the first of several to be deployed in Guyana, will be spread moored in a water depth of 1,525 meters and will be able to store 1.6 million barrels of crude oil.